My Sister Lisa says I have to keep Blogging

My dear sister Lisa has mentioned several times that I have to keep blogging because my blog is the "Keeper of our Memories" and I have to admit there are so many times that we can't remember something and she says, "Check your blog" and sure enough there will be a blog post about what we wanted to remember. 

But we all know that there are only so many hours in the day and so many things we want to do. If you have read my blog in the past you know that in 2016 I was invited to a birthday party paint night and I never looked back, I was hooked on painting. I took some art classes and had paint nights with my sister and our friend Lupe.

Painting took me into the world of Mixed Media which I also loved and I started collecting so much of the stuff that is necessary for Mixed Media, cardboard, paper, string, fabric, paints, inks, beads, old jewelry, well almost anything can be used for mixed media. My art room is still filled with it although I don't believe I've done much since Covid hit our world.

Covid made a big, huge change in my life because one day I'm just going along living my life and the next day they send us home with all our office equipment so we can work from home for a few weeks or months until they get this "little bug" worked out. Well....I'm still working from home and had to get rid of my art desk because I need my standing desk and that put an end to having space to do mixed media. You need to really spread out when doing mixed media.

I then got into Zentangle and that sort of saved my life because I needed something to do that would take me out of my own head and everything that was going on in the world and how our lives would never be the same again. No longer could we just run out to the grocery store to pick up a few things, now we had to suit up and make sure we had our masks and hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes. No more could we head to our favorite restaurant for lunch because everything was closed and mom and I had to learn to drive-thru (mom hates fast food) and eat in the car (she hates eating in the car too).

We have a bit more freedom now, we get out a little bit more, but it will never be the same. If we are in a store and we hear someone cough we all turn to see who the culprit is and we shoot them a dirty look like they are carrying the plague and that's because we think they might be. It's sad but true because there have been times that I have been the one coughing and I know how people looked at me!

During all this time of various art media and Covid and working from home, I lost the will to blog. At first it was because we didn't go anywhere or do anything because of Covid and now I think I've lost the ability to just take a trip spur of the moment. Covid really did a number on us, well on me. 

I guess I need to learn how to live again in this Brave New World. I need to start blogging again and continue being the Keeper of our Memories. I really have missed it and like anything else, if you stop doing it you lose the ability to do it and you have to start up again taking baby steps and building up your skills, like with any form of exercise or even with cooking. I will have to do a post about cooking and how Alicia lost her Groove when it comes to cooking.

Have you found that your life has changed since Covid? Has it changed for the better? What do you miss most about life pre-Covid?

Well, this is all for now, back to the real world and to the job that pays the rent...well the mortgage anyway. 

When a Book Grabs you and Reels you in

 I'm an avid reader and have to read something every day. Recently I've been really lucky in the books that I have found to read.

I don't buy books in book shops, although I would love to, I just can't fathom purchasing a book for $15 to $35 that I will read in a week or less, depending on how good it is. Last year I read 34 books; if I had paid $15 for each book I would have spend $510 in one year!! At $25 per book it would have been $850 and well, you catch my drift. 

So where do I buy my books you ask? Mostly at thrift stores, our local Goodwill has paperbacks for $1.00. I also buy them online from Thriftbooks.com but that is only when I can't find something that has been recommended to me and I don't want to wait to come across it at a thrift store.

So this is a long intro just to let you know that I bought this book for $1.00 and I'm about 3 pages into it and I'm ready to quit my job and just sit and read until I'm done and then cry when I can't pay my bills since I quit my job, but hopefully it will have been worth it!

Just the cover grabs you...a little boy sitting alone, is he the one being sold, why is he being sold? Who is selling him, who could part with a little child like this? 

The story takes place in 1931 and starts out with a newspaper reporter who is out on a different story but has to stop on a country road on a hot and dusty day to let his engine cool down. He picks up his camera and starts looking around, taking pictures as he goes and he hears a "plink, plink" sound and finds two little boys tossing pebbles into a can. He immediately takes their picture without noticing a sign next to them painted on a piece of old wood that says "Two Children for Sale". 

I read that and looked at the illustration of the sign itself and I was hooked! And that is why I want to quit my job and just read until I get the rest of the story.

What book has grabbed you like that? I just may be up all night long reading, but then again I may just read a bit here and there and savor it and make it last, kind of like how I eat a box of Chocolates!